Gallery Two Sin

Eve is, according to popular views held in Western culture, the original temptress. In this section or ‘gallery’ of the book, my aim is to explore some of the textual and intertextual hooks and triggers that have allowed for the transformation of the first woman into the first femme fatale. For centuries, she has been framed as a negative ‘everywoman’, with countless interpreters claiming Genesis 2–3 as a prooftext for viewing women as inherently more sinful than men. Cumulatively, I consider how the image of Eve as a dangerous temptress has gained such considerable cultural currency, and question its damaging dominance over, and corruption of, equally viable images of her as a subversive wise woman or a mourning mother, which I explore in Galleries Three and Four.